A well-designed page-turning effect can add a subtle touch of elegance to a business document or Web page. When you apply a page-turning effect to an image, it looks like someone partially turned a page in a book. Unless you have superb graphic artist skills, you might want to use software to add this effect to your business images. Image editors such as Microsoft Paint can't automate this process, but GIMP can. This free editing tool has built-in filters that can help you create dramatic page turning effects by clicking buttons.

Move to GIMP's menu bar and click "Filters." Move your cursor over "Distorts" and select "Pagecurl." The Pagecurl Effect window opens and displays controls that allow you to customize the effect.

Move to the Curl Location section and review the radio buttons there. GIMP selects the "Lower Right" button by default, but you can click others such as "Upper Left" if you'd like the effect to appear on that part of the image. When you select one of these positions, a small thumbnail image shows you how the effect would look using the selected position.

Click "Vertical" or "Horizontal" to select one of those orientation modes. Click "Shade under Curl" if you want to add a shadow effect.

Click the "Foreground/Background Colors" drop-down menu to view a list of options. Select "Current Gradient" or "Current Gradient (Reversed)" and click "OK" to apply the effect.

Tips

You don't have to use a book or pamphlet as your image. GIMP will apply the page curl effect to any picture.

Experiment with the "Current Gradient" and "Current Gradient (Reversed)" options to see how they affect the image. GIMP notes that these options affect the appearance of the effect's outer face.

Press "Shift-Ctrl-F" to reopen the Pagecurl Effect window quickly if you need to change the effect. Pressing “Ctrl-Z” undoes your most recent change.

The Pagecurl Effect window also contains an Opacity slider. Slide that to the left and right to control the effect’s opacity. Slide it to the left to make it more transparent and slide it to the right to decrease the transparency.

About the Author

After majoring in physics, Kevin Lee began writing professionally in 1989 when, as a software developer, he also created technical articles for the Johnson Space Center. Today this urban Texas cowboy continues to crank out high-quality software as well as non-technical articles covering a multitude of diverse topics ranging from gaming to current affairs.